This is a Gay, Lesbian & Bisexual “True Blood” Post

There’s been a ton of buzz around True Blood for the last week because in addition to being the best show on television, nearly the entire cast visited Comic-Con in San Diego last weekend. Before I continue talking about True Blood, which was amazing last night, last week, and the week before that, let me ask you this — do you know what Comic-Con is? If so, skip the next 2 paragraphs. If not, read on.

I didn’t know what it was until I started this here website, so if over the last week or so you’ve been hearing a bit of chatter about this or that person relevant to your interests/pants saying/doing something neat/important at an event called “Comic-Con” and don’t know what it is, I’ll tell you: Comic-Con International is a four-day conference held annually in San Diego, founded as the “San Diego Comic Book Convention” in 1970. Originally, Comic-Con showcased (yes this is a link to Wikipedia) “comic books, science fiction/fantasy and film/television and related popular arts” but has since expanded to include “a larger range of pop culture elements, such as horror, animation, anime, manga, toys, collectible card games, video games, webcomics, and fantasy novels.”

Dr.Who Panel at Comic-Con

Events a fan might find at Comic-Con include panels, seminars, workshops, upcoming movie previews, “screening rooms devoted to Japanese animation,” awards ceremonies, costume contests and various screenings as well as an exhibition hall for movie studios, comic book dealers and so forth. There tends to be an undue emphasis on the cast of Twilight, regardless of whether or not a relevant Twilight film is happening any time soon. We’ve already shared with you the Glee revelations from Comic-Con, though honestly I don’t know why Glee was at Comic-Con.

Anyhow! Onto True Blood!

Kristin & Alexander at Comic-Con

At Comic-Con, the cast were given multiple opportunities to field questions and subsequently answer these questions, often on videotape. In addition to sharing selections from some of these interviews, I will also share with you an “extended trailer” for Season Four, which contains spoilers I suppose, and the cast’s “It Gets Better” videos. I will share the extended trailer right now, and the “It Gets Better” videos (which are a tad strange) at the end of the post.

Rutina:Going through a phase!? Lemme tell you what I think. This is what I think. My backstory is — this has not necessarily been talked about — I think it’s one of those things that just sort of happened. I think she maybe met her [Tara’s girlfriend], didn’t realize she was being hit on, next thing you knew, things happen and she was like “Hm. Interesting. I kinda liked that”… I think she wanted to spend more time with her and then that sorta led to a relationship. I really do think there’s a love there, and I really do think it is a relationship. I would say she’s bisexual, but I don’t think it’s a phase, because I think she really is into this woman. And I know people who like, there’s been one woman that they’ve been into and then, that’s it. But she’s definitely attracted to her but I don’t think she saw it coming, I think she kinda got sideswept.

Because I know a lot of people are like, I’ve never seen her like women, you know this is like all of a sudden and bla bla… I mean, yeah, [Tara] was sort of was taken for a ride and I think that that’s okay, and I ultimately like it because she’s happy and she’s smiling… it’s nice to see her happy and it’s nice to see her with someone who I think really likes her too for who she is.”

Michael Ausiello: How did Alan Ball explain to you that this was gonna be your storyline? Did he call you to say, “Guess what, you’re a lesbian on the show now?”

Rutina: “I had a lot of little birds tell me things very early on and I was like, fine whatever. I was totally fine with it I mean, I’m an actor. And it’s True Blood. We signed up for a show that was very racy and you have to expect stuff like that. We take off our clothes, we run around naked… we’re having orgies in the middle of the forest! I was a little like OKAY, but I also was like “Is she gonna be happy? Is she gonna be duct taped to a toilet? No? Okay, cool. Fine.”

“Wouldn’t that be fun?” Kristin gushed when we asked if she approved of the pairing.

“I would love to work with [Rutina Wesley]. You never know what these guys are going to write. We hear all sorts of different things, and the cast, we cook up stuff we’d like to see, but it would be pretty interesting because they hate each other at the moment. So how these writers would ever manage that, I don’t know. But it’d be fun to see.”

Well if they managed to get Sookie to smooch on sexy (but sometimes über-evil) Eric Northman, we’re sure they could find a way for Pammy and Tara to hit the sack.

Well! That was fun. Now — I promised myself and my grandchildren that we’d never post another “It Gets Better” video on this website. But then Pam went and made an “It Gets Better” video. That being said… well, what do y’all think about these videos? Is it strange that “It Gets Better” videos don’t even mention being gay anymore?

Riese is the 33-year-old CEO, CFO and Editor-in-Chief of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, blogger, fictionist, copywriter, video-maker and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York City, and now lives in The Bay Area. Her work has appeared in nine books including "The Bigger the Better The Tighter The Sweater: 21 Funny Women on Beauty, Body Image & Other Hazards Of Being Female," magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are!

I have Tourette’s, except I wasn’t diagnosed until I was in my 20’s. All I knew growing up was that I twitched…A LOT! And I had bright red hair. And I got straight A’s. Three strikes against me, and I got picked on a lot for being the smart weird redhead in school. I finally left high school after being sexual assaulted and had my wrist broken, and the school did nothing about it. It took years for me to understand that I didn’t deserve any of that. I would have LOVED these PSAs as a kid being picked on everyday. It’s not just gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender that need a little boost now and then. It’s all the kids that need to know they won’t always be picked on for being different, and they so deserve to be loved.

True Blood is fun. I like it.
The PSA’s are weird though, I thought Alan Ball and Kristin Bauer were stretching to come up with something relevant:
oh, I was smart
I got stranded in NYC during a blizzard
I liked what Alexander Skarsgard had to say about parents though. And his was the only one to mention being gay.

I KNOW RIGHT?! It’s super disturbing. I was totally upset with Tara’s rapes last year and I wish the whole Jason/Hotshot storyline would never, ever be mentioned again. It’s just…I can’t deal with the rapes! Please, just let Eric be tall and adorable, Pam and Tara be badass, and Lafayette and Jesus be cute together! Is that so much to ask?

What’s especially disturbing to me is that Alan Ball described what happened to Jason as a ‘comeuppance’ for sleeping around, which is basically just slut shaming. When does being promiscuous ever make someone ‘deserve’ to be sexually assaulted? Oh yeah, it doesn’t.

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